Flood-fence



1.' SOURBEER.

Fence.. Nm 6,025; Patented Janyy 30, 1849.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN SOURBEER, OF MOUNTJOY TOWNSHIP, ADAMS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

FLOOD-FENCE.

Specfication of Letters Patent No. 6,075, dated January 30, 1849.

To all whomt may concern Be it known that I, JOHN SOURBEER, of Mountjoy township, in the county of Adams and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Constructing Fencing to Remedy the Great Loss of Fences Along WVater Courses'Occasioned by Floods; and I do hereby deolare that the following is a full and exact description.

The nature of my invention consists in constructing such a fence that when the water rises to the first rail it will raise it out of the mortise, in the post, at one end, and hold fast by the hook and staples to the post at the otheil end, and swing around in any course the current may take it, and as the Water rises the rails will be raised out one by one, until the water course will have no other obstruction than the posts and When the water falls the rails are soon put to their place again.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and Operation.

I construct my fence by making a post A as shown in the accompanying drawing, 7 feet long and 7 or 8 inches square 2:12 feet to be well fastened in the ground with stones and 4-3,- above ground; on the one side of the post I insert a mortise for every rail, 2-1; inches deep, in quadrant circular form, 3 by 2 inches, the mortises to be the distance apart that persons wish to have the space between the rails. The rails may be any length that is wished, say from 10 to 25 feet. The one end of the rail is fastened to a post similar to the one described, on the opposite corner from that in which the mortises are inserted by an iron staple drove in the post, and a flat piece of iron, about 7 inches long and made in breadth and thickness to suit the weight of the rail. This piece of iron is fastened on the end of the rail by two rivets passing through the iron and the rail with a hook on the end of iron, to fasten into the staple in the post as at. letter D. On the other end of the rail I form a gudgeon, 2 inches in diameter and 271,- inches long, to go in the mortise, C, when the water rises the rails will be raised out of the inortisc and Swing around with the ourrentthe posts, rails, and iions of the fence can be made to suit the Strength ofv the current of water they are intended to resist, by being made larger or smaller than described above.

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The manner of fastening the rails to the posts, that in Opening they have the full scope of a semicircle for the current of water to carry them and, on that account,

JOHN SOURBEER.

Titnesses SAML. DUiiBoRi-xw, MARGARET DURBORAW. 

